Category: Democracy

The final results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections have been released by the Election Commission of India. The results were published for the 543 member Lok Sabha by the Election Commission of India on their website.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone could secure 282 votes. And the final tally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the alliance that went to the polls together, is 336. These numbers have never been achieved by the party and the alliance in the past. These numbers are historic and set a new benchmarking. The Congress Party could, however, secure only 44 seats. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) could make the final tally to 59 seats. The other parties together account to 145 seats.

And to form a government any party or formation needs 272 seats.

And finally the “Lotus” blooms !! The miracle of the Narendra Modi (NaMo) leadership is that it has given the BJP a nation-wide sweep and has also increased their vote share to a new mark. The BJP vote share has gone up from 18.8% in 2009 Lok Sabha elections to 31% in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. On the other hand the Congress’ vote share has decreased from 28.6% to 19.3%.

The people of India have given their verdict and they have also given an opportunity to the BJP and NDA under the leadership of Narendra Modi (NaMo) to bring development and give good governance. And all this has to be proved objectively with enough empirical data and figures. And if the leadership is able to do all this with enough objectivity then nobody can stop NaMo for the second term as PM. Indeed, the challenging times are ahead.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Plato

Plato is so pertinent in the above observation. The elections are round the corner all over India. A new leadership and a new government is in the offing. The people of the country must participate in large numbers to choose best of the leaders. Please always remember that there are only two choices: One is to lead, and the other is to get led. And the only answer is “Better Management” and “Better Leadership”. And all this is possible by choosing good leaders.

What do you want? Do you want an inferior to lead you? If you go by the statistics and information available with the Election Commission, about 30% of the elected representative to the parliament and the assemblies have criminal records. Some have even heinous criminal charges. And the above trend is increasing and not decreasing. And if the same trend continues, a day is not far when we all are governed and led by criminals. Can we really hope this to happen? What kind of ecosystem we are creating for the present youngsters and for the new ones to come in the future?

Please also note that excercising one’s vote is not only a right but also a great responsibility. If the people are not wise in choosing their representatives, then only inferior ones will rule and govern the people and the country. All power is of the people. All power is for the people. And all power is by the people. The highest power lies with the people. And the responsibility of the government is just to serve the people. It is, therefore, rightly said that the Constitution is OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people. This is the true power of the democracy.

Leadership means to create a value that benefits the whole of humanity. And a true leader is one who shares this value with the people. Political Leadership means to give power to the people. It is an action to move the power to the people so that the common man has all the power. And this way it becomes a distributed leadership. As of now what happens is that the politician discounts the power and through his action and administration he passes on only a discounted power to the people. This process is very dangerous to true democracy and meritocracy. And if this is not checked from time to time, it may lead to an absolute power. And we all know that the absolute power corrupts absolutely. This absolute power could lead to the eventual death of a democracy. And meritocracy shall remain a far cry.